Rain
by wwgost
Summary: On a long delivery in crap weather, Cloud reflects on the value of a dollar.  Warnings for language and a very smutty welcome home.
1. Chapter 1

**Rain**

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><p><em>Money's just somethin' you throw<em>

_Off the back of a train_

_Got a head full of lightnin'_

_And a hand full of rain.—Norah Jones, Long Way Home_

* * *

><p>"You really gotta go out in this shit, babe?" Reno hitched himself up on the breakfast bar, still dressed in his pajamas, and cast a skeptical eye out at the stormy weather.<p>

"It's express, the upcharge for that alone is obscene, and with it being a weekend…" the calculator that was always running in Cloud's head made the extra cash hard to resist. However, it was one thing that sucked, unequivocally sucked, about running a delivery service primarily on a motorcycle. That was the weather. And since they both worked within walking distance to home, neither owned an actual _car_. He was fortunate that Strife Delivery Service operated in a part of the continent where the weather was mild, and he loved nothing more than riding his bike under that big blue sky, wind blowing through him like freedom.

Some days, though, it rained. A very few days it rained _hard_.

At least it wasn't freezing, he attempted to console himself. But two hours each way in the driving rain, well, it sucked. Reno had dragged out of bed just long enough to brew him a thermos of coffee, but that was as far as his show of solidarity went on a Saturday. He had standards, after all. "Bummer, yo. Drive safe." He scratched his ass, kissed his boyfriend, and went back to bed.

* * *

><p>Halfway to his destination, Cloud was pretty sure it would have been worth it to blow off the delivery and take the mortgage out of savings. He wondered if Reno was awake yet. He wanted to call; the damp and noise was getting on his nerves but he knew that the sound of that voice, broken velvet over the phone, still addled with sleep, would only add a boner to his growing list of discomforts.<p>

He finally pulled off the road to save his sanity, an abandoned fuel station providing a welcome sanctuary. He retrieved his thermos of coffee and calculated for the thousandth time just what he was making off this trip. It would be nice to not have to touch the bank account this month. Though Reno made a pretty cushy salary as second in command of the Turks, Cloud liked to bring something to the table. But he was starting to feel silly, out here in the rain while Reno was in bed. And attractive as the money had sounded this morning, he'd rather be _in_ that bed with Reno until lunch. Not just in a sexual way either, though he found himself forcing his thoughts away from that _thing_ Reno did with his tongue, the way he rolled it right between Cloud's collarbone and the muscle of his throat.

Shit.

Unbidden, heat rose in him. He took out his phone and stopped. When had he changed from the man who wouldn't answer the cursed thing, to the man hoping like hell he could piggyback off a shortwave tower in the middle of nowhere?

Fuck it. He dialed.

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><p>Reno stopped in the middle of cutting vegetables and wiped his hand. Still no chef, he'd made his peace with simpler recipes that involved chopping, fire, and other means of violent destruction. It was kind of like blowing shit up, but different.<p>

After all, when Cloud returned, he might like soup. It felt good to contribute something besides lazing around all weekend on the sofa.

"Yo!" He cradled the phone on his shoulder.

"I should have stayed home."

"Bike trouble?" Fenrir was beyond reliable but anything could happen in this weather.

"No, about a half hour out from delivery but had to pull over to rest. Piggybacking off a tower now."

"Didn't think I recognized the number. Should have potato soup when you get back."

"I'm sorry, do I have the wrong number?"

"Shut it, Strife. Get your fine ass back safe, I have uses for it."

"Will do. Love you."

"Love you too." He hung up. Half hour, delivery, two hours back, maybe a little extra for weather delay. He turned the clock around because it was pissing him off.

* * *

><p>The weather, thank Gaia, cleared for most of the trip back but he was still damp and a little chilled. He had refreshed his coffee in town and pulled over at the same station to drink a few cups, even though he didn't really need the break. Another biker was there; they exchanged nods and well wishes for their travels. Real conversations among the brotherhood of the road were rare, a fact for which Cloud was eternally grateful. He hit redial.<p>

"You on the way back?" Reno sounded as if he'd been napping. Cloud squashed the wave of envy he felt.

"Yeah, little over an hour out."

"Weather still sucks here, yo. Call when you hit town so I can stop worrying like a granny."

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><p>Cloud turned the key in the door and was met first with the smell of butter and spices, and then with a warm dry hug from Reno, in spite of the fact that he was still cold and wet. "Take a shower and warm up, then soup's on." Gods, he did the tongue thing. "And hurry."<p>

He hurried.

Showered and wearing dry gym pants and an ancient, soft t shirt, he settled down to his soup. It was quite good, and he told Reno so.

"Stupid easy, yo. Or I'd never have survived it, and neither would the kitchen. Plus it has bacon." Reno was convinced bacon was a food group.

When his bowl was empty, Cloud pulled out a stack of gil notes that made Reno's eyes widen. "Yeah but you know what? I still wish I'd stayed home with you." He peeled off a few bills at a time. "Waking up when I felt like it because it was Saturday. Morning sex. Going back to sleep. Taking a shower together. Watching shit TV. Eating last night's takeout leftovers for lunch. Letting you convince me to go back to bed. Napping till supper. Going out for beer. Collapsing drunk in bed again. Me waking up at 3am with your tongue somewhere I'd have lost a bet on it being five years ago. I sold my Saturday and I think I got ripped off."

Reno looked at him for a long moment and gathered him up in an embrace, inhaled the warm damp shower smell of him. It was several moments before he trusted himself to speak; his chest and throat felt full, tight.

"We still got time for the last five, babe."

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><p>This was another bet Cloud would have lost all those years back, when he was consumed by angst and Reno knew nothing but his own chilled ruthlessness. He would not have ruled out simple fucking; their attraction had been obvious even then. But that it could be not only this tender lovemaking, over and over, and that Cloud would so often lead in it…it would have gotten anyone who suggested such a thing laughed at and possibly beheaded, and not necessarily in that order.<p>

But Reno had turned out to be a generous and patient lover, with an unexpected mind for humor and teasing that drove Cloud half mad and addicted him by equal measures. And to Cloud's unending surprise, Reno really did seem to love him exactly as he was, moodiness and all.

His musings were cut short once again by the redhead's insistent stroking through his clothing. It drove him to distraction, Reno's roaming fingers, soft here, firm there. And that damn tongue was back to work on his neck again. He moaned, walking backward toward the bed and pulling Reno with him, trying simultaneously to wiggle out of his clothing. It wasn't working. "Fuck."

"Getting there, babe."

They landed on the bed with a soft _whoompf_, grinding together like teenagers on a date. "I missed you. All day. I want to make up for lost time. Touch you everywhere." It sounded like a damn fine idea to Cloud, finally blissfully naked and starting to work on Reno's jeans. Unzipping them between strokes took more work than he had counted on.

"I swear, sometimes you have more than two hands."

"Complaining?"

"Nngh." One of Reno's more than two hands had located and opened a bottle of lube, somehow, without letting go of any of Cloud's body parts that he had been squeezing or stroking. He wondered if being gone all day was a good trade, if he was missed _this_ much. Reno pressed into him with such impossibly slowness he wanted to scream.

He wasn't sure he _didn't_ scream as he pushed his hips up, his impatience getting the better of him, and gasping with the faint stinging stretch he felt. He knew it would ease with movement but in the meantime it only served to further arouse him, if that were even possible. Like the raking of the nails down his inner thighs, and the look of pure animal pleasure on Reno's face.

The mirror image of that pleasure was beginning to pool, hard, in his groin. His back arched and he wrapped his hand around his own hard shaft as the first sweet pinpricks moved through him. He was past warning Reno but he knew his lover would feel the shudders from inside him, would follow him soon. Sure enough, as he was riding out the first waves of his own orgasm he heard over his own groan, Reno's string of profanity. He wasn't familiar with some of the words; he assumed the Turk had picked them up from his foreign travels. He'd ask later.

He realized, once his senses returned to him, that the rain had finally stopped. Figured, it would do so once he was inside, warm, dry, fed, and laid.

Reno pulled out of him, carefully and looking a little shell shocked, and stretched out beside him. "Nap, then beer, right? And just where did you want that tongue later?"

Cloud laughed. It was good to be home.


	2. Chapter 2: Beautiful

Beautiful

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><p><em>We all want something beautiful<em>

_Man I wish I was beautiful_

_So come dance the silence_

_Down through the morning.—Counting Crows, Mr. Jones_

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><p>Saturday morning sex was the best invention ever, Reno mused as he started the coffeepot. Well Saturday in general, since it was a day off and all but especially the sex part. He walked out to the balcony and leaned back as he lit a cigarette, Cloud-induced endorphins doing a happy dance through his brain. If his lover's body fit any more perfectly with his, if his compact warmth were any more hypnotizing, his mouth any more welcoming, Reno thought he would die of sensory overload.<p>

The memory of waking up to him kissing his way across Reno's naked chest, of burying himself in his lover's body until insanity took him…damn. If he kept up this line of thinking, he'd be going back inside. But then he remembered how Cloud had dozed back off afterward, curling into him like a plant into sunlight. Reno's breath had caught at the sight; he had wondered just when life had become…this. Closed upon that perfect sleeping face, his vision had blurred and he would have sworn later his heart stopped.

His cigarette burned down and singed his fingers; he swore. Shaking his head to clear it, he opened the paper and noticed the Courthouse Square Art Fair was that weekend. Hell, they weren't doing anything else, right? And last weekend had sucked because Cloud had been away most of it on an out of town delivery. In the rain, no less.

It would be a nice makeup weekend. The walls were still a little bare in the loft anyway, though they'd been there almost a year; some art would do the place some good. He went back inside to drag the Worlds Most Gorgeous Boyfriend out of bed.

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><p>It had taken a few minutes to convince Cloud that it was a good idea. Cloud was not an artsy type—neither was Reno—but they did need to decorate the place a bit, it was a beautiful day for wandering around doing nothing, and Reno wanted to go to Five Monkeys.<p>

"Because you need more coffee." Cloud gave him _the eye_.

"They have really good coffee, yo."

"They are also next door to a head shop."

"Coincidence."

"My ass."

"You do have a nice ass."

It got him a roll of the eyes, but it also got him a trip to Five Monkeys where he ordered a cappuccino with chocolate sauce and an espresso shot. Cloud ordered coffee.

"Dude. Live a little."

"I am! I ordered coffee. I like coffee. Wanna hit Raging Burrito after the head shop? We should be ready for beer by then." Cloud had been ready for beer since he had been awake, but figured he didn't need to belabor the obvious.

They sipped their drinks in comfortable silence and looked out over the square.

Courthouse Square in Edge was a single block and a few side streets of coffee shops, bistros, bars, and galleries arranged around a park and bandstand. It had been part of the great rebuilding after Meterofall and, like most urban renewal projects, it tried too hard at looking old fashioned to appear anything but brand new. It was fun anyway.

Reno tossed their coffee cups into the trash can, making it on the first try.

It was a good day.

* * *

><p>The head shop yielded a blue ceramic pipe for Reno. Cloud bought three paintings for the living room from the artists' booths and had them shipped so they didn't have to lug them around all day. They climbed the rickety steps of Raging Burrito's back deck, the only shade in the place. "Morning boys, need a menu?"<p>

"No, just two large amber beers please." They would eat elsewhere; the place hadn't earned the nickname "The Exploding Taco" for no reason. Cloud's stomach hurt just thinking about it. "Wanna go to the Brick Store later?"

"Isn't that place a little…_Tseng_?" Reno affected a down-the-nose look.

"Yeah, but man, they have some fantastic home brew beer. Vin took me in there one night."

"Figures."

"Well, they have this one beer that's so strong they serve it in a wine glass."

"Now, we are definitely talking Vincent Valentine."

Cloud snorted. Vincent could be an insufferable snob, as bad as Reno's boss. "Well, regardless, I do not remember the train ride back."

"We'll go there after we eat." Reno was so easy, so bribable with alcohol, sex, or caffeine. They finished their beers and walked back out on the street, Cloud making a supposedly quick stop in a deli for his "weekly losing lotto numbers." While he was there, Reno browsed some handmade bracelets from one of the art vendors, drawn particularly to a woven one with beads the color of Cloud's eyes. The warmth of this morning came back to him in a rush.

"Can I help you sir?"

"Thinking of something for my boyfriend."

"Oh, well those are mostly for the kids these days. They're made of hemp."

"I like my hemp smoked, yo."

"I hear you."

He looked into the deli. Cloud was picking lottery numbers with the same agonizing obsessive compulsion that he used for everything else. He could easily be there for hours.

"Got anything in this color that's a little more…permanent?"

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><p>They stopped for a late lunchearly dinner at a wing bar. Cloud ordered the garlic barbecue wings while Reno opted for the "asshole meltdown" variety. Cloud mused that only Reno would locate, remember, and order on purpose something called asshole meltdown. It was appropriate, somehow.

The afternoon was turning late and they were working on a comfortable buzz; Cloud talked Reno into one, just one drink at the Brick Store on the condition that it was outside, on the patio, because outside seemed a little less snobbish. The waiter, dressed in a tuxedo in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, looked at them with an expression that said they were welcome, but only if they didn't get too close to the silverware. Reno stretched out his legs, clad in ragged jeans, and lit another cigarette. The beer was indeed strong enough to strip paint and after one glass he could no longer feel his face. Cloud shot him an I-told-you-so grin and they paid out to the unending relief of their waiter. Reno wanted to torture the man a bit more with his non-designer clothing, but the fireworks started at dusk and like two small children, they didn't want to miss it.

Small purchases lay piled around them, ones not big enough to ship. One that Reno was hiding. It felt heavy, making his heart do a funny trippy beat. He prayed he didn't have a heart attack before nightfall. They watched children play in the splash park, young lovers hold hands over wine and tiramisu at the trattoria next door.

He didn't exactly stagger, but he chose his steps carefully.

A rush to the center of the square signaled the beginning of the show. Reno looked down at Cloud, who looked up at the fireworks, his face lit with wonder. For a moment they weren't second in command of the Turks and the supposed Hero of the Planet; they were just, well, who they were.

Before he lost his nerve, Reno put the bracelet, a silver cuff with small blue stones on one edge, around Cloud's wrist. "What's this, a handcuff?" he joked and looked back up at the fireworks.

"Didn't know your ring size, yo."

It took a minute, well a few seconds, for the words to sink in. When his brain finished translating, Cloud forgot all about the damn fireworks and kissed Reno. Very, very thoroughly.

"I don't have a fucking clue what it is either."

"We don't have to make, like, concrete plans or anything right now, you know. I just wanted you to know, it's like, permanent and shit."

"That has to be the most romantic marriage proposal ever."

"I wouldn't mind a box of those candy covered almonds though. The kind you get for wedding favors?"

"I'll make a note of that." Cloud wondered how long there had been tears on his face and if he'd look like a total pussy if he admitted it. In the end, he just leaned into Reno's shoulder and let the fireworks burst over them until it was time to go home.


End file.
